Articles

A Vincentian lady said to the Leader of the SVG Green party, Ivan O'Neal, 'we do not have serious crimes in SVG, what we have is an abundance of ignorance perpetuated by the ULP regime's education strategy'.

It is not difficult to comprehend the lady's perception of the wrong direction in which SVG is heading. As research has revealed, nine out of ten inmates in Her Majesty's prison cannot read. SVG Green party's field research about SVG's educational problems has revealed that it is an 'upstream' problem, yet the wrongheaded and short-sighted ULP regime is working downstream. The ULP regime places emphasis on secondary education and scholarship rhetoric. This ULP regime's unwise strategy results in a greater demand every year for remedial and extra schooling for children who have failed common entrance. This clearly shows that the ULP regime has no effective solution or answers to the serious education problems upstream.

The time is right for every sensible and patriotic Vincentian to demand from the incompetent ULP regime a complete turnaround from their useless education strategy, which is compounding the education problem, and more seriously, offers no help to the children who are being pushed to the side.

If there is pollution upstream in a river then you can only clean it up by solving the problem where it originates - upstream. We can only resolve the educational weaknesses by building a solid foundation which catches children during the early years when they are highly conducive to holistic learning. To tackle the problem at the secondary school level as the ULP regime has attempted to do by increasing the number of places in secondary schools is a downstream strategy and totally useless. The 2007 common entrance results show clearly by the high level of failures, that the ULP regime has got it wrong. Our children are paying the price for this useless experiment but the children deserve better.

This ULP regime experiment is very costly to our young people and SVG's society. The time is right to abandon the ULP regime's education so-called revolution. It is devastating the future, long-term life opportunities of many children in SVG. The ULP regime is running away from the core problem upstream and providing ineffective sticking plaster solutions downstream. Remedial classes is a downstream solution and is remedial thinking. The children attending these classes should have been given greater educational input earlier in their lives.

An SVG Green Party government will build a solid foundation to help children in the early years. This will clearly lead to young people having a steady job, a good life, and a maturity induced by self-esteem and empowerment. Young people will be able to stand up for their rights, be proud of who they are, be better positioned to get higher paid jobs and have greater opportunities to plan for a positive lifestyle. This is a reality under a visionary SVG Green Party government.